In truth, it was never going to be pretty. Two teams in third and fourth position only separated by a point. Both teams with 3 games in hand on the ladder leading Roar (who's lead after this game would be less than the 9 points these games in hand have on offer). Two teams who in recent games have scored well and played well. So why would it not be pretty?
Mariners have endured a compacted schedule with their recent mid week fixture against Victory and it will not get any better with another lined up for the Jets, coupled with Gold Coast's seemingly improbable hand of injuries and their marquee man returning from playing out of his skin in Egypt. This means fatigue and 'restructured' line ups Rafa Benitez would be proud of.
But if Amy Winehouse has taught us anything it is you don't have to be good looking to be entertaining. This game had the magic ingredient, the cure-all for bad football, the secret to making the ordinary look extraordinary. This panacea is simple: LOTS of GOALS!
A five goal thriller that had as many twists and turns as the next instalment of the SAW franchise. We had an open goal miss from Matt Simon that would be making Jason Spagnuolo sleep a little better tonight. This was eventually followed up with a strike that can only be described as accidental for Simon to open the scoring.
There was a half time equaliser and a go-ahead goal for as lead that only lasted a minute before the Mariners levelled the field. The on field drama included a reoccurring character that never really stood out in Robson, burst on from the subs bench and re-ignite a team that was rocking under repeated Mariners surges. We saw defenders scoring freely and Mad Miron playing for 30 minutes with NO striker?
It is in a sharp contrast when you look back at this season's first encounter between these foes. A horrible dire affair that had the Mariners set up 10 players that predominantly never left their own penalty box coupled with the team only producing one shot on goal in the 93rd minute of a 93 minute game.
Understandably I was not impressed and wrote so in my blog that week of the probability that Arnold would be just playing McKinna's bore - draw football all year long. Well I must say the Mariners have proved me wrong and Arnold has made some definite changes for the better, furthermore they are well deserving of fourth spot.
So in what was surprisingly a very entertaining game that had me on the edge of my seat untill that final whistle it is Gold Coast that emerge from the trials as the victors. Even through the turmoil of the team's depth being tested it is good to know we can still turn out a win when in truth a draw would have been respectable. With this is the return of Porter for next week's equally season defining match against Adelaide. This will be a six pointer in every sense of the word. A win away to the reds will see United only one point from that coveted top two position still with two games in hand on the south Australians.
The only concern is the availability of clearly our man of the match against the Mariners. In his post game interview Miron commented that Glen Moss played for 20 mins with a possibly broken ankle. He is a huge factor why GCU have the stingiest defence and clearly kept us in the game right to the end, and we will be a poorer team without him if true.
One day United will be able to field a full strength first choice line up, until that day I am rapt that the teams we do put out on the park have done us all so proud.
